Cannibalism
One of the most disturbing parts of this novel is when
the father and son discover the house in which people are being eaten by other
human beings. In normal circumstances
this would be seen by many as unquestionably unjustifiable. However, the situations in the world being
that they are in this book, can one make the argument that it is ethical to
perform acts of cannibalism in order to survive?
In my opinion the manner in which the men in these
rounded up and captured helpless women and weaker men for future slaughter is a
horrific act of injustice that cannot be defended. Even if all conventional society is gone that
should not give people the excuse to do whatever they want. If an act of rape or murder is committed in a
post apocalyptic world then it is still rape or murder. Granted the act of eating another person may
not be as evil as what was previously mentioned, because someone wouldn’t devour
someone else just for the sake of doing it.
They may be doing it out of desperation.
But hopefully if I had the choice between starvation or eating another
person who still has a strong will to live, I would take my own life.
I would make an exception to the above argument in the
case that in a small group where there are very few resources left and the
people are desperate for their next meal, they all agree to randomly select a
person to eat so the others can survive.
I believe there have been documented cases of this in history. It may be horrific, but if everyone unanimously
agrees that this is a good course of action than there are arguments for this
situation.
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